The Essential Conversation by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

Author:Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781588362940
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2003-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

Culture and Class

FAR AWAY FROM Cleveland and Winston, in a small town in Maine, Audrey Pierce, a sixth-grade teacher, also observes huge contrasts in her relationships with rich and poor parents. The Maple Street School, where she teaches, is one of three elementary schools in town that house grades kindergarten through six. With about three hundred students in the school, there are two classes at each grade level. Although it is not considered a “poverty school,” it has been designated for Title 1 funds, and a significant percentage of the children come from “destitute rural families.” Actually the socioeconomic mix is fairly broad, with a few professional, middle-class and upper-middle-class families at one end and illiterate welfare families at the other; with families living in manicured country estates with breathtaking vistas, and families crowded into trailers with broken cars and debris all over the lawn. “There are no really rich families here,” says Audrey, “but this is a town where families with some resources will decide to send their kids to public school, rather than always choose a private school.

“Maine is one of the whitest states in the Union,” says Audrey in explaining the fact that “race doesn’t figure in a big way” with her relationships to parents. In this year’s class, for example, there are only two students who might be regarded as “culturally different”—one from Argentina and the other from Korea—and both of them are academically gifted and extremely successful in school. Marcello, a light-brown boy from Argentina, just learned English a couple of years ago, but he is already a fluent speaker, a good reader, and a sensitive writer; he mixes comfortably with his peers. His mother has never come in for a conference despite several reminders from Audrey. Each time Audrey calls, she sounds cordial (“not disinterested”), but she seems reluctant to come because she is embarrassed by her halting English. Paul, a Korean boy, was adopted by Korean parents and raised in the United States. His father, in fact, was born in this country, moved to Korea as a young man, and married a Korean woman. “He clearly has American tastes and sensibilities,” says Audrey, “while his wife is much less comfortable, much more withdrawn.” When Paul was still a baby, they moved back to the United States.

When Audrey thinks about the potential for cultural misunderstandings between teachers and parents, she immediately thinks about a recent interaction that she had with Paul’s father at the first conference. As in all of her other parent-teacher conferences, she began by telling Paul’s dad (his mother never appears at school) what she saw as a primary goal for the year. She started gently, by praising his son’s “brightness,” “attentiveness,” and “respectfulness.” Then she told him that Paul was a “reluctant writer,” reticent about expressing himself on paper, and that he had earned “only a C” for his portfolio of essays. As she looked into his face, she could tell that Paul’s father was growing increasingly uncomfortable, maybe even angry.

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